John Milton, part 7: Adam, Eve and partnership | Jessica Martin
Milton's view of marriage as partnership gives Eve a prominence that works against the misogyny of the tradition he usesWe first see Adam and Eve through Satan's eyes. He is sitting "like a Cormorant" (IV.196) in the branches of the highest tree in Ede...
John Milton, part 6: of course the poet can’t justify God | Jessica Martin
Milton can't turn God into a character. But he can show Adam and Eve encountering God through love and sacrificeAdam and Eve stand together in Eden before the Fall. Twilight is coming on, and Eve is surprised by it. She turns to her husband and she say...
John Milton, part 5: the devil’s best lines | Jessica Martin
Satan is the great salesman of Paradise Lost, who can talk his way past everyone – except himselfSatan is the first figure to speak in Paradise Lost. His address (to his second-in-command Beelzebub) is the kind of thing a politician has to say to his...
John Milton, part 4: the language of a universal hubbub wild | Jessica Martin
Epic poetry can do special effects on an unlimited scale, and Milton takes full advantage of this freedom in Paradise LostReading Milton is a breathless, cumulative experience, a wild ride, a long but always rich haul. His genius is immersive – immen...
John Milton, part 3: does Paradise Lost really attempt to justify God’s ways? | Jessica Martin
Milton allows his story to carry him, like Orpheus, down into hell: blind in this world, he prays to see clearly thereWithin 30 lines of his opening, Milton states the boldest possible intention: he plans to "justifie the ways of God to men". So it is ...
John Milton, part 3: does Paradise Lost really attempt to justify God’s ways? | Jessica Martin
Milton allows his story to carry him, like Orpheus, down into hell: blind in this world, he prays to see clearly thereWithin 30 lines of his opening, Milton states the boldest possible intention: he plans to "justifie the ways of God to men". So it is ...
John Milton, part 2: marrying the epic with the sacred | Jessica Martin
In choosing the epic form, Milton had to mould limited biblical source material to fit a very particular way of telling his storyJohn Milton chose to write a verse epic. His title, Paradise Lost, tells you something significant about the arc it is goin...
Milton, part 1: a puzzling epic of heaven and hell | Jessica Martin
Jessica Martin starts a new series on John Milton's epic Christian poem, Paradise LostJohn Milton's Christian epic – or at any rate most of it – came out in 1667. Extremely ambitious in design and scope (yet a slimmish fast read compared with some ...
John Milton, part 8: Adam and Eve find in loss a new paradise glimpsed